Another successful year of community arts programming with the Kingston School of Art

Story by Christena Lawrie, CFRC's Broadcast Journalist, for the Local Journalism Initiative.

The Kingston School of Art (KSOA) has lots to look back on this year, with yet another year of arts programming under their belt.

The Kingston School of Art is a non-profit charitable organization which opened in 1994 to provide accessible arts programming for the community. 

With highlights including their Indigenous Canoe Garden project which was installed at Queen’s University and collaboration with the Limestone District School Board to work with teachers to bring arts into the classroom, KSOA has continued to further their mission.

This has also been a transformative year for the school, including welcoming a new Executive Director, Victoria Smyth, just this month. Smyth has been involved with the school before in a volunteer capacity, including for this year's juried exhibition which took place in the fall.

Smyth states, “I've always been really excited by what the school has done and how we're a part of the community. All the things that my predecessor, Maddie, accomplished in the last year have been fantastic. And I've just been really excited to be able to continue on with that.”

2024 is also notably a milestone for the school, marking 30 years of offering arts programming to the Kingston community.

“I feel like most of the highlights that happened in 2023 were really very much community-based. And I think that's just an amazing thing to be able to accomplish,” says Smyth.